Recent Changes

Sanger Boats, Inc., founded by Jack Davidson, was established in 1954 in the small town of Sanger, California. At the age of 16, Jack built his first 14-foot wooden boat from the instructions in a magazine. Jack married in 1950 and went on to have four children. In 1956, Jack built his first Sanger dragster for hot boat racing and began drag boat racing competition. In Berkeley, CA , in 1958, Jack set a record at the speed of 118 mph.

Pro Comp Eliminator has many different boat classes grouped into one, with rules regulating hull design and engine speciﬁcations. Each class runs off an index that is generated by the ET record of the class. Each class does qualifying, then is paired up for elimina­tions by running as close to or under their index. The starting clock “handicaps” the start of each class.

The Top Alcohol Hydro runs racing methanol, street named “alco­hol” for fuel. They resemble Top Fuel Hydros but are just a few feet shorter and are half the weight. Most Alcohol Hydros weigh about 2500 pounds and make over 3000 horsepower. With two speed trans­missions, operated by the driver, just one propeller pushes these light weight boats over 230 mph, with ETs in the low 5 second range.

Pioneer Boats was founded in Paso Robles, California by Steve Hall and made primarily jet boats. It was based at one time at 8120 El Camino Real, Atascadero, California. Pioneer (in Atascadero) went out of business in the mid eighties. The Pioneer molds and name were sold to a guy in northern California who continued to build boats for a few more years. It was registered for business on Friday, June 27, 1975 and was officially out of business on Thursday, October 18, 1990.

Mod Eliminators have a ﬁxed dial-in of 10.00 seconds. Outboards, V bottoms, Outboard Tunnels, Hydroplanes, Flat Bottoms and Jet boats full this very competitive class. To run a ten second pass takes a huge outboard set for full race. In boards run big Chevys, Fords, Chryslers, multiple carburetors, fuel injection and nitrous oxide is used, making the horse power you need.

Irv Brendel started Brendella boats in the late 1950s, building flat bottom ski boats. Irv started Brendella Custom Boats after he divorced Peggy Brendel. It was originally opened in Fresno but ended up in Merced, CA, off of 16th and Highway 99.

Rusty Biesemeyer, Julian Pettengil and Ron Ehde took a hull(maybe a Aqua Craft Shark) modified it, built a mold and the current (wide) Biesemeyer that has dominated flatbottom racing for about 40+ years was born. The upper deck was designed by Rusty. Julian built the wide boat with at least 3 different decks. The Standard race deck(which we see most of) a long deck and the Ski Deck.